February 18, 2018
Dear Family,
“We don’t know what we don’t know.” When Hermana Myra from Pinotepa said that to us we didn’t realize it then but that would become our guiding star for the next 17 months while we served in the Mexico Cuernavaca Mission…discovering what they didn’t know, and then helping them to learn. Dad spent much of his time in Pino as the First Counselor in the District Presidency teaching not just self-reliance principles but leadership principles as well, often being frustrated when the Mexican mentality was stronger than their willingness to learn what they didn’t know. The Mexican government is very good at engraining in the minds of their citizens an “entitlement mentality,” which prevents people from wanting to be self-reliant, and which is against everything the Church teaches. But when the women there asked us to teach them how to bake some of the things I had made to share with them, they seemed like sponges, wanting classes every week to learn as much as they could. Mayra, of course, and Hermana Eugenia would then go on to experience great success in baking and selling some of the recipes we taught them with Mayra now helping to support her new missionary son. These two sisters seemed more like daughters to us, in fact, Mayra started calling us Mami and Papi Meadows!
As we complete our mission and look back on the year and a half serving our brothers and sisters and our Savior, I feel a little like Ammon in the Book of Mormon (Alma 26) where his brother, Aaron, accuses him of boasting of their missionary successes. Ammon then says, “…my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.” Our hearts are full and we are so grateful we have had the opportunity to serve here. We have had wonderful experiences with our brothers and sisters here in the Cuernavaca area, teaching in a total of 24 different wards, branches, or stakes all over the entire mission area, which covers four different states. Probably our most valiant area was in the Iguala Stake where brothers and sisters came to our classes twice a month, many of them not missing any! Some of them have in turn taught others who couldn’t come to our classes. It’s hard to tell but we believe we have taught self-reliance skills to approximately 500 people.
We were blessed to be able to be with many of them the last two weeks of our mission, which was bittersweet…good to be able to teach them just one or two more things, but then having to say good-bye, all of us knowing we would never see each other again. At Iguala they decided to send us off with a little dinner party after class and then afterward Presidente Pedro invited any who wanted to share feelings to do so…uncomfortable for us but very enlightening as well as they shared their personal experience in learning. One lady shared that she started baking things for her family and then for her friends and then realized that it was good enough to start selling! With tears in her eyes a sweet young woman shared that before the classes she couldn’t even boil water and now she was making sweet breads for her family! Then a “sister” stood to talk about what she had learned and how happy it had made her. She was at nearly every class, but unknown to us she isn’t a member of the Church! Her husband decided to attend that night and he explained to us later that he wanted to come and see for himself what was the cause of the change in his wife…not only was she learning how to make yummy things for her husband and six boys but she was noticeably more happy and different! We had dinner after class with them and the sister who invited her to come the classes and he asked many questions. Hopefully they will agree to meet with the missionaries soon. Presidente Pedro and his wife Paty (who are Asdrubal’s parents) own a paleteria and have been concerned about what they would do for a living if something happened to the paleteria but expressed that they now feel confident that they could make a living, or add to what they are already doing, with the pastries they have learned to make, which has brought them more hope for their future. Their ten year old son, Asdrubal (the one who confounded the robber with his prayer for protection), decided that he needed to start saving to pay for his mission and asked his Dad if he could start selling paletas on his own in the Mercado and plans to add kettle corn! So far he’s saved 2000 pesos, about $100. It was wonderful to hear of their successes and progress and happiness in “learning what they didn’t know.” How grateful we are to be a tool in the Lord’s hands to help others.
And speaking of Asdrubal, he has decided that he wants Dad to be his grandfather! Apparently one of his grandpas died and the other lives in Chicago with his son’s family, so Asdrubal says he needs a grandfather and Dad would be just perfect! This same family drove us to Teloloapan to teach our last class there (because it’s too dangerous for us to take a bus) and on the return trip Asdrubal sat in the back in the middle of Dad and I, with one hand on Dad’s arm and one hand on my arm, stroking them. When it was time to say goodbye he broke out sobbing and was hugging us both as though we were his grandparents! It was a sad scene.
We also had some interesting experiences these last two weeks. At our last class in Chilpancingo they also decided to have a little dinner party after class. One of things they served us was a taco made with chicharron. Chicharron is the most disgusting thing I’ve eaten here (well, I didn’t actually eat it…I threw it away out in the hall where no one could see me). It’s pork skin with all its blubber that they cook and plop inside a tortilla. It’s so disgusting! Well, Dad being the good sport that he is, did gag it down. The guy sitting next to him and watching him eat it then asked him what the worst thing he had eaten in Mexico was! But Dad didn’t really tell the truth! And while in Acapulco this past week, we were walking to our favorite restaurant one night located just a block or so from our hotel in what is considered to be one of the safer neighborhoods. As we got closer to the restaurant we saw cops everywhere and their vehicles with the emergency lights going, cops guarding the restaurant entrance. Since we didn’t see any sign of accidents or other disturbance, Dad asked the waiter what was happening, why all the cops. The waiter then said, I don’t know how to tell you this (knowing that we were “tourists”), but last week we had a murder on this street and the week before another murder on the next street over!!!! We had been there the week before also! It made my stomach do flips knowing how many times Dad and I had been to Acapulco, stayed in the same hotel, walked the lonely sidewalks at night to get something to eat (thinking that it was a safe neighborhood) and had to do so one last time to get back to the hotel! And then the day we get back to Cuernavaca had a 7.2 earthquake. Even though the quake was centered near Pinotepa there was no loss of life. About 200 buildings and homes were destroyed but as far as we know our friends there are safe. But I’m so ready to go home. This is not a safe country but the Lord has truly protected us and the other missionaries serving here. We have been blessed to feel safe in our home.
So, we will be coming home in a couple of days. Tomorrow is our P-day, Tuesday is spent with President and Sister Avila the whole day and we leave early Wednesdaymorning. We love the Lord and acknowledge the goodness of our lives and the blessings that our family has received because of Him. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. And now we get to go to Wyoming and tell the incredible story of our ancestors to anyone who will listen! Boys and girls, if you have not already done so, please tell our grandkids the stories of the Loader family and tell them again and again. This is our heritage, this is the faith that our fathers cherished and gave their lives for and the faith that we hold near and dear.
We love you!
Mom and Dad, Non and Pop, Ken and Chrys
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